


The Horned King

by Cait_Sidhe



Category: Kingdom Hearts, The Black Cauldron (1985)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Blood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Crash Landing, Creepy, Dragons, Dungeon, First Kiss, Gummi Ships (Kingdom Hearts), Handcuffs, Happy Ending, Head Injury, Healing, Horror, Injury, M/M, Missing Persons, POV Third Person, Pain, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Kingdom Hearts III, Protective Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Rescue, Rescue Missions, Running Away, Serious Injuries, Strangulation, Torture, Unconsciousness, Undead, Violence, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:42:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24783301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: When Sora and Riku get caught kissing, they decide to take a brief trip together to avoid the teasing... but then crash the ship in a world that somehow manages to be more frightening than the Realm of Darkness and has the cruelest villain they've ever met—whom they manage to get captured by.Their friends, realizing the two boys are missing, go to rescue them.(No knowledge of The Black Cauldron characters/world required to understand).
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	The Horned King

**Author's Note:**

> Disney may want to bury "The Black Cauldron" deep in their vault, and thus it'll never be in Kingdom Hearts, but I think it'd actually make a great world in the game (although for obvious reasons, this fic's storyline would not be Disney-approved). 
> 
> This fic is pretty much all Kingdom Hearts with the exception of the world and villain; I wasn't even actually sure if I should tag the Black Cauldron fandom at all. So don't worry if you don't know the film (Disney sure doesn't want people to).
> 
> Please heed the graphic violence tag. There will be bloody injuries that magic doesn't immediately heal, so if that makes you queasy stay away.
> 
> I tried to use a detached 3rd-person omniscient point-of-view instead of my usual style of close 3rd-person limited; hopefully I achieved that!

“Hey, Riku?” Sora hopped onto the chintz couch in Yen Sid’s library where Riku sat, and scooted close to the silverette to lean against him. Riku automatically put his arm around Sora’s shoulders, barely glancing up.

“Hmm?” Riku acknowledged, eyes on the heavy textbook in his lap.

“Whatcha up to?”

“Reading. Obviously,” Riku said, concentrating more on the book than the conversation.

Sora pouted. “Well, whatcha reading?”

“Mechanics of Advanced Transformative Temperature-based Magic.” Riku glanced at Sora with a small grin. “Why, do you want to read it too?”

Sora made a face of disgust. “Ugh, no way! Why are you even reading that?”

Riku chuckled; Sora hated to read anything complicated. He was a much more hands-on learner. “Not everyone can be such a natural at magic as you,” Riku said, turning back to the book.

Sora blushed vigorously. “Okay, fine. Can’t you read it later, though? I’m bored!”

Riku rolled his eyes, trying to focus on the text again.

“Let’s spar,” Sora pressed.

“We can spar later,” Riku replied dismissively.

Sora growled in annoyance. “I wanna do something now!”

Riku sighed. “Sora, we can do whatever you want later. But right now, I'd like to finish the chapter at least.”

Sora paused. “Anything I want?”

“Sure,” Riku said, focused more on the words on the page than the ones coming from Sora’s mouth; he’d long ago learned how to block out Sora while pretending to listen during times when he needed to focus.

Unfortunately for Riku, Sora knew this. “So, we can practice air battling?” 

“Mhmmm.” Yup, not paying attention; Riku hated aerial combat. 

“Learn dangerous new magic?”

“Okay.”

“Bake cookies?”

“Sure.”

“Get sea-salt ice-cream in Twilight Town?”

“Yup.”

“Do work on the GummiShip?”

“Sounds good.” If Riku had been paying closer attention, he’d have questioned that; Sora hated any kind of work like that. A grin began to blossom on Sora’s face. He was testing Riku.

“Collect synthesis materials?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Clean the Tower?”

“Mhmm.”

“Kiss?”

“Okay.”

“Run away together?”

“Yeah, su—wait, what?” Riku, attention finally drawn from the book, lifted his head to stare at Sora, whose bright grin could have lit San Fransokyo.

“You weren’t paying attention!” Sora laughed.

Riku gazed at Sora, blinking, and then pink dusted his cheeks. Caught in the act! He tried to remember everything Sora had been suggesting they do; it was completely obvious it had been a test in retrospect—one that Riku had failed.

“I was serious about the last two,” Sora said, now blushing too. Somewhere along the way he’d ended up practically sitting in Riku’s lap.

Riku frowned, trying to think. “Okay, I wasn’t paying attention, I admit it. I didn’t catch the last few things, except the run away one.”

Sora looked at Riku coyly as he nudged the book away to seat himself fully in the silverette’s lap. “You suuuuure you don’t remember the second-to-last one?”

Riku creased his brow, seriously trying to think now. Ice-cream, GummiShip-something, cleaning… wait… Riku’s face lit up like Rudolph’s nose.

“There it is!” Sora cheered.

“Wait. So you… you…” Riku sputtered, somewhat dazed, wondering if he was dreaming.

“Only if you want to,” Sora said, looking up at Riku and cupping a cheek with his hand.

Riku breathed in sharply as his eyes met Sora’s. “You’re serious,” he breathed.

“Well? Can I…?”

“Yeah,” Riku said quietly, leaning forwards as Sora did. It was just a simple, chaste press of the lips, but sent both their stomachs aflutter.

Of course, at that exact moment the door opened.

Sora actually squeaked as he jumped off of Riku to sit back onto the couch, back straight and hands clenched on his knees, face red from embarrassment. Riku mirrored the pose; caught in the act, again!

“Well, uh, don’t let us keep you from, well. We’ll be back later.” Lea, face red too, backed out of the door, trying to shield someone much smaller from entering the library.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Kairi asked, trying to get in, but Lea wouldn’t let her.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Lea said teasingly as he closed the door.

Sora and Riku stayed still for a moment, then turned to each other. “Running away actually seems rather appealing right now,” the latter admitted.

*******

“I can’t believe we're actually doing this,” Riku said with a groan, placing a hand on his head as he slouched in the co-pilot seat of the GummiShip.

Sora snickered as he piloted the ship. “Having second thoughts?”

Riku sighed. “No, not really, just… is it really okay we took the ship like this? And Yen Sid is going to be pissed that we’re shirking our duties…”

Sora shrugged. “Yen Sid will get over it. We’re overdue for a vacation anyway.”

Riku looked at Sora skeptically. “We’ve only been at the Tower for three weeks,” he pointed out. “And all we do is train, study, and occasionally go defeat random groups of weak leftover heartless. It’s not difficult stuff.”

“No, but it’s boring and tremulous!”

Riku frowned as he shifted into a better position. “You mean tedious?”

“Yeah, that. We need a break.”

“And you’re sure it’s not just a way to escape all of Lea’s jabs and Kairi’s questions?” Riku teased.

Sora cringed. “Ugh, don’t remind me!” The previous night at dinner had been full of jokes from Lea about the two of them, all while Kairi was eternally confused because no one would explain to her what Lea had seen or what all the jokes and teasing were about.

Neither of the boys were looking forward to having a discussion with Kairi about it; they secretly hoped that Lea would take that initiative, maybe take pity on her obvious cluelessness or be so annoyed at her continuous questions that he'd cave and explain to her the situation. Riku hadn’t actually come out as gay to anyone (although he was pretty sure Mickey knew) and Sora hadn’t ever given any thought to terminology (as he hadn’t even realized it was atypical to not have a preference of gender). Even if Kairi did suspect that Riku liked Sora in a more-than-friends way, she’d be completely shocked that the feelings were returned, particularly since Sora had quite obviously had a small crush on Kairi before they left the Destiny Islands the first time—a crush which Kairi returned, and almost definitely still had, oblivious to the fact that Sora had grown out of it.

“So, where are we going?” Riku eventually asked, realizing Sora never told him.

“Oh, that’s a surprise,” Sora said, turning to Riku with a sly grin before he turned back to the window, upon which he violently jerked the ship to avoid a collision with an asteroid.

The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, reveling in the quiet yet beautiful atmosphere of the Lanes Between.

Suddenly, a thought crossed Riku’s mind. “You remembered to leave them a note, right, Sora?” he asked.

“Ummmm. I thought you were going to do that?”

*******

“Hey, Lea,” Kairi said as she entered the kitchen, covering her mouth as she yawned. “Have you seen Sora and Riku today?” She sat at the table, assessing the array that the Mysterious Tower had provided for breakfast. She poured herself a bowl of frosted cheerios and coconut milk.

Lea shook his head as he absentmindedly held his spoon in his mouth while pondering the puzzle on the back of a cereal box. “Maybe they’re still asleep.”

“Hmm. Maybe. I’ll check after breakfast.”

Lea looked over at Kairi, raising an eyebrow. “Sure you want to do that?”

Kairi frowned. “Of course. They’re usually up by now. Or at least Riku is.”

“Well, maybe they had a late night,” Lea suggested with a wink.

“But they went to bed early,” Kairi pointed out, not catching on one bit.

Lea shrugged. “Fine, check on them. But don’t blame me if you walk in on something.”

Kairi looked at Lea in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Lea sighed and put his head in his arms on the table, cursing the fates that had put him in this situation. He wasn’t sure if it would be crueler to tell her outright or let her find things out on her own. Her crush on Sora was as painfully obvious as Sora and Riku’s had been on each other (well, obvious to all but Kairi). Thankfully at least the latter had finally been resolved.

To Lea’s relief, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy chose that moment to enter the kitchen; an unexpected yet welcome distraction. Not that it changed the direction of the conversation by much, as it turned out, once the generic greetings were through.

“Have either of you two seen Sora and Riku?” Mickey asked.

“I literally just woke up,” Kairi said through a mouthful of frosted cheerios. Jiminy Cricket hopped out of Donald’s hat onto the edge of Kairi’s bowl and began to lecture her on the impoliteness of talking with her mouth full. Kairi didn’t notice, and nearly scooped him up with her next spoonful of cereal.

“Oh, is it that early here?” Mickey asked. It was impossible to tell what time it was at the Mysterious Tower by any clock’s standards, especially as the scenery was static; when travelling there, you basically had to just hope for the best that the Tower decided to welcome you at an hour people were awake.

“Not particularly,” Lea said. “Kairi tends to wake a bit late; usually the two lovebirds are up by now.”

Donald sighed. “I’ll go check their rooms.” 

“Don’t forget to knock first!” Lea called as the duck left the room.

King Mickey and Goofy sat at the table with the two trainees for a bit, asking how training was going and discussing various other topics of general chatter. Not very long after, Donald returned quite frantic.

“I can’t find them anywhere!” The duck quacked in clear distress.

*******

“Okay. Yeah, looks like the communications system is completely down,” Riku said, dislodging himself from the opened console on the GummiShip. “I don’t know enough to dismantle things further.”

Sora frowned. “But isn’t your dad a mechanic? You built your own motorcycle once.”

Riku gave Sora a look of exasperation. “Sora, a motorcycle and a GummiShip are two completely different things.”

“Okay, yeah, but cars aren’t. You help him fix cars all the time, I’ve seen you.”

Riku sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. “Sora, a car and a GummiShip are completely different things too. Literally the only similarities are that they both have seats and a steering wheel. Cars don’t have communications systems—hell, the Islands don’t even have anything like this anywhere, let alone on a vehicle.”

Sora gave Riku a look of confusion. “They don’t?”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “Where on the Islands did you ever see something that could both call a person and show their face in real-time? Other than in cartoons.”

“I guess you have a point… Well, we’ll only be gone for like a day or two, it’ll be fine,” Sora concluded with nonchalance.

*******

“They definitely eloped,” Lea concluded, as the group discovered that not only were Sora and Riku nowhere on the premises, but a GummiShip was also mysteriously absent.

“What’s ‘eloped’ mean?” Kairi questioned; Lea responded with a facepalm.

“Well, that’s okay, we can just call them up using our ship’s computer,” Mickey suggested.

“Though that idea has merit, unfortunately it will prove fruitless,” Yen Sid said gravely. “The communications system onboard the ship they seem to have stolen broke a while ago. I have been meaning to get it fixed.”

“Then what do we do now!?” Donald squawked.

“Well,” Mickey reasoned, “They only just left this morning, and as they left no note I’m sure it must have just been a quick errand. They’re responsible.”

“No they’re not!” The duck argued.

“Well, Riku is at least,” Mickey amended.

*******

Mickey gave Riku too much credit. That, or Sora just had too much an influence on him when the two boys were together.

“You just had to try to get through those two asteroids!” Sora complained, wincing as he removed a large shard of glass from his arm and cast a cure spell. He didn’t need to be a mechanic to know that the GummiShip was not flying anytime soon, even if they could repair the shattered windshield, and they weren’t even outside the ship yet.

“You’re the one who bet me I couldn’t!” Riku defended, checking Sora over for more shards as he’d finished with his own; the brunette had gotten the worst of the spray. “Where are we, even?”

“Uhhhh. I actually don’t know,” Sora said. “Doesn’t look like anywhere I’ve ever been.”

Riku groaned. “Seriously? You’ve been to dozens of worlds, yet we end up crashing in one you’ve never seen. Great.”

“Hey! I haven’t been to that many. And half are weird pocket dimension ones or sleeping things. Besides, there’s hundreds. And, wait, you’ve been to the same amount as me!”

Riku laughed and ruffled Sora’s hair. “Relax, Sora, I’m joking. Come on, let’s check things out outside.”

The two exited the ship to find themselves in some sort of stony swamp. Everything seemed to be washed in dulled greys, blues, and purples, with ebony pools of water, patches of mud, spindly black trees, and scraggly bushes dotting the rocky, grassless earth underfoot. The fact that it was night didn’t help, especially as the moonlight shining through the thick clouds tinged the sky with a strange greenish hue that reminded the islanders of looking up at the surface of the water while submerged deep in the sea on a stormy day. The air itself stood eerily still.

“Holy crap this is creepy,” Sora commented, rubbing his arms, not sure if the chill was from the temperature or the feeling caused by the general aesthetic. His voice echoed eerily.

Riku stepped over to put his arm around Sora, pulling him close and talking in a whisper, afraid that speaking loudly could disturb something. “Yeah… it’s somehow worse than the Underworld... No, scratch that. This place is freakier than even the Realm of Darkness.”

“Maybe we should just wait in the ship until they find us,” Sora suggested, whispering too. “Or at least until it’s morning, assuming it’s night. Pretty sure that’s moonlight.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Riku said, already leading Sora back into the GummiShip, which they immediately made sure to lock tightly.

“What should we do about the windshield?” Sora asked, still keeping his voice low and clutching Riku’s arm, which was, like his, covered in goosebumps. It felt like if he spoke loudly again something would find them.

Riku stared at the windshield for a while. “Umm. Let’s just put a blanket over it and hope for the best. Think that’s pretty much all we can do…”

Sora nodded. “That works… hey, there is more than one, right?”

Riku, already examining the compartment under the bench seat along the side of the ship that doubled as a fold-out bed, shook his head. “Nope. Seems there’s only one.”

Sora sighed. “Seriously? It’s too chilly to sleep without one.”

“Well, we can use our body heat? Or maybe sleep in shifts.”

Sora yawned. “How about both?” he suggested.

Riku chuckled slightly. “Okay, sure.”

Sora grabbed the seat to fold it outwards, but something was stuck. He tugged a bit harder, then asked Riku for help, who obliged. The two tried pulling it out together, and succeeded—in a fashion. With a loud screech, the seat unfolded, but instead of neatly folding down there was a popping noise and the thing collapsed. The unexpected momentum forced Sora and Riku onto their rears.

“Ugh! Can’t anything go right today!” Sora yelled, flopping backwards onto the floor with one arm above his head and the other covering his eyes.

If the situation were different, Riku would have taken advantage of that position to tickle Sora playfully, but instead he flopped down too and let out a groan.

Something howled in the distance, and the two boys froze. They quickly scrambled up, grabbed the blanket, and dashed into the ship’s tiny bathroom, which at least had a door to protect them. They sunk to the floor, huddled up together against the wall in the blanket. They barely fit, resulting in their feet being pressed against the opposite wall with their knees still bent, but at least it was safe.

*******

“Can we start to worry now?” Lea asked, voicing the thought of everyone in the group as they sat down for dinner. 

“Didn’t you say earlier we should ignore them because they eloped?” Kairi asked innocently.

Lea stared at her blankly. “Okay, one, that was a joke. And two, you still don’t know what that means, do you?”

Before Kairi could answer, Yen Sid spoke up. He usually ate in his room or office rather than with the apprentices, but as there were visitors today he had graced them with his presence. “Yes, I do believe we have cause for worry. Sora I would expect something like this from, but not Riku—if it were more than just a simple errand, once he noticed the communications were down he would have surely returned right away.”

Lea raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

Kairi nodded. “I agree with Lea. If Sora asked him to, Riku would elope.”

“Again, Kairi, you still don’t know what that means, do you?” Lea sighed.

“Well, no, but you seem to think it applies…?”

“Again, I was joking…” Lea put his head in his hand. “Okay, fine. ‘Elope’ means to run away to get married in secret.”

Kairi blinked, processing, then squeaked and put her hands over her mouth as her face reddened. “Ohmygod. Lea, why would you even suggest that?”

Lea took a deep breath. “Okay. Kairi, I think that’s a conversation that you and them need to have in private.” He looked up at the others. “So, we need to search for them, right? How are we going to go about it?”

“Chip and Dale have a way of tracking the ships,” Mickey said. “As long as there’s power, we’ll find them!”

*******

Sora stretched out as he woke—or rather, tried to.

“Watch it!” Riku yelled, as Sora accidentally smacked him in the face.

“Sorry, Sorry, forgot we—mmmph!” Sora was cut off as Riku covered his mouth, signaling Sora to be quiet.

Sora’s eyes widened in slight fear. Both his and Riku’s hearts raced and they tried not to breathe; there was a rustling sound coming from outside the bathroom door. The two slowly stood up, and Riku drew his keyblade. Sora followed his example; it was an extremely tight fit. Riku locked eyes with Sora, giving a silent signal as he held up 3 fingers, then 2, then 1. The boys steeled themselves and burst out of the door, keyblades out, pointing at… a small furry creature that appeared to be a cross between a dog and a monkey, grey pelted with darker paws, hands, and face, and a white stomach with white tufts of fur around his nose and on his head that looked like a mustache and hair.

Sora began to lower his keyblade, but Riku stopped him, as even the cutest things could be dangerous. “Who are you, and why are you looking through our things?!” Riku yelled.

The creature jumped in surprise, and turned around. Its eyes grew wide, and it put its hands up in surrender, dropping a nutrition bar as it did. “Gurgi is sorry!” it said. “Gurgi only wanted food!”

“Well, there’s nothing here for you!” Riku said, moving forwards, and the creature moved back.

“Wait, Riku!” Sora called, dismissing his own keyblade. “He’s only hungry.” Sora walked over and picked up the nutrition bar, handing it to the creature. “Gurgi, is it? Here, you can have one.”

The creature looked delighted. “Oh, Gurgi thanks you!”

“Now, get out of here,” Riku said.

“But Riku, he’s so cute!” Sora argued.

“Oh, yes, Gurgi must be going now. Gurgi has things to do. Gurgi thanks his new friends!” The strange creature scampered off with his gift of food.

“Aww, he called us friends!” Sora gushed.

Riku sighed, lowering his keyblade. “Sora. Just because he’s cute doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous! He’s a thief, at the very least.”

“You sure? We were hidden; he probably just saw a crashed abandoned ship and decided to see if anything was here.”

Riku scoffed. “Whatever. Let’s go; it seems to be at least a tiny bit brighter out.” He headed towards the ramp and pressed the button to open it.

The ramp didn’t open; they were out of power. Which was understandable, since it was based on happiness and cowering in complete fear in a bathroom was the opposite of a happy emotion. Riku swore, and he and Sora tried to pry it open, to no avail. Why wasn’t there a manual override for the door?! The two gave up, opting to climb out the window instead; they had to put the blanket over it anyway, which would hopefully keep out more Gurgis and other strange creatures.

“Oww!” Sora hissed, landing hard and stumbling into Riku’s arms as he clutched his own arm.

“Sora, what’s wrong?” Riku said with worry, and Sora moved his hand to reveal a large gash on his upper arm. Riku looked up at the windshield, noting a tinge of red on an edge of glass. He sighed, using a cure spell on Sora and wiping away the fairly large streak of blood down the brunette’s arm with the blanket. “You have to be more careful,” Riku scolded.

“I was careful!” Sora argued.

“Clearly,” Riku said tonelessly, as he draped the blanket over the gaping hole in the window.

The two began walking in a random direction, hoping to find some hint of civilization. The air was chillier than the evening before, but at least it was slightly brighter. The sky was still thick with clouds, and everything remained in muted colors, but at least they could tell the trees were a brownish-grey instead of black and see well enough to navigate around the patches of mud on the ground. It was still creepier than hell though, and the two pressed against each other, hands clasped together in a vice grip.

“AWOOOOOOO!”

Sora let out a high-pitched squeak at the sound, and both boys looked around in a panic, trying to pinpoint the noise, unsure how far away it had been. Sora pressed in closer to Riku, whimpering slightly.

“Hey, shhh, it’s okay, Sora,” Riku said soothingly. “Whatever it is, we have our keyblades, remember? We can beat it.”

“Yeah but what if it’s a ghost or something? Does the keyblade even work on those? Or maybe it’s some sort of—”

“Wolf?” Riku suggested, eyes wide, and Sora turned to the direction Riku was looking. 

Sora let out a gasp. Wolf was an understatement. The monstrous thing must have been twice the size of Riku. Its hair was matted and its muzzle, full of razor-sharp rows of pointed teeth, was bared in a snarl. Most importantly, it looked starving, and eyed the two boys with clear intent to kill.

The boys summoned their keyblades. “Do we run or fight?” Sora whispered.

“Uh. Maybe start by backing away slowly,” Riku suggested, keeping a hand on Sora’s shoulder as they did so. It seemed to work, at least at first.

The wolf growled in warning before springing directly at them. Riku and Sora split, dodging in opposite directions.

“Looks like we’re fighting!” Sora called, and Riku nodded.

The wolf leapt at Sora, much faster than he nor Riku could have anticipated the thing could move.

“Aaaaaaah!” Sora screamed in pain, as the wolf’s claw scraped against him, knocking the brunette to the ground. He struggled to get up, but his leg was too managed, torn skin soaking his leg in blood. He watched in horror as the wolf turned around, leaping at him again…

“Dark Firaga!” Riku yelled, and the wolf yelped as it was knocked onto its side by a huge ball of black fire. “Sora!” Riku called, rushing over, but the wolf was already back on its feet. Sora, still on the ground, used a lightning spell as Riku dashed towards it, stunning the wolf briefly so Riku could land a well-placed strike near the wolf’s rear ankle, and it collapsed, howling in pain. It tried to get up, but the ankle was too damaged.

Riku rushed over to Sora, who now lay unconscious. Riku muttered a quick “curaga”, healing Sora’s mangled leg. He shook Sora slightly, aware of the giant wolf still struggling to get up, but when the brunette didn’t immediately awaken Riku scooped him up in his arms and ran.

“Shit!” Riku swore, accidentally running straight into a mud patch and sliding onto his back, Sora on top of him.

Thankfully, Sora woke at that moment, albeit slowly. “Riku?” he muttered, half-conscious. “Why are we in mud…?”

“Doesn’’t matter!” Riku said in a hurry, scrambling up and pulling Sora with him. Riku used a quick “watera” spell to wash off the worst of the mud from them, as well as most the blood still on Sora's leg, then Sora, fully conscious now, used an “aero” to somewhat dry them. It was only a slight improvement, but better than nothing.

“AWOOOOO!” came a howl of pain from the beast behind them, and the two dashed away as fast as they could; off in the distance they could hear the howls of at least two more wolves replying to the injured one.

*******

“Well, bad news is the ship itself seems out of power, so we can’t tell exactly where it is,” Chip said from the videoscreen of Mickey’s GummiShip.

“But we can locate the general area they were in!” Dale quickly added.

“Yes!” Chip said, pulling up a map on their screen. “The ships send signals periodically. Their last ping was here”—a red light blinked on the screen—“and their direction was this way”—an arrow appeared on screen—“so based on that and the distance required to send another ping, we can predict they’re somewhere in this area.” A triangular section of the map was highlighted.

Donald sighed. “I bet Sora crashed the ship again.”

“Is there a world there they could have landed on?” Kairi asked.

“Pretty much the only things there are dense asteroid fields, as far as we know,” Dale informed them. 

Chip continued, “But it’s largely uncharted because of that, so there could be another world!” 

“Well, either way, we have to go there to look for them,” Mickey said. “Kairi, Lea, Yen Sid, we’ll see you later.”

Yen Sid nodded and left the ship. Kairi and Lea stayed put. After much arguing, the two ended up going with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy to find their friends.

*******

Riku and Sora both stood hunched over, hands on their knees and panting, trying to catch their breaths. Once they had, Sora wobbled over to Riku and clutched his arm while leaning against him, legs shaky. Riku lifted his other arm and ruffled Sora’s hair. “Hey, you okay?”

“No. I want to go home,” Sora moaned, burying his head in Riku’s shoulder.

“I know. Me too,” Riku admitted, then moved his hand to Sora’s chin, guiding it so Sora was facing him and leaned down to snatch a kiss.

Sora’s stomach fluttered happily. “What was that for?” he asked.

Riku blushed. “Couldn’t help it. You’re just too cute.”

“Do it again?”

Riku leaned in, this time pressing his lips into Sora’s harder; soon, the kiss deepened, and the two readjusted their bodies so their chests were flush together with Sora’s arms around Riku’s neck and Riku’s hands holding Sora’s waist.

“SCREEE, SCREEEEE!”

The two boys leapt apart and immediately drew their keyblades. A gigantic winged shadow passed over them, and they looked up. 

“Dragons? Really?” Sora said exasperatedly, voicing Riku’s thought too. Indeed, no less than four humongous dragons flew above the two, colored in deep purples, greys, and black.

One of the dragons swooped down towards Sora, who barely doged. “It’s fast!” Sora shouted. “I think we need to run from these too!”

“Yeah, good plan,” Riku said quickly, and the two began to zigzag towards a forest in the distance, which would hopefully provide some cover from the dragon attacks.

Unfortunately, running from four swooping dragons at once is no easy feat; soon, Sora was grabbed in one’s talons, screaming in fear and pain. Riku chased after it as its wings lifted it higher into the air, trying to grab Sora, only to get swept up by another dragon. The strain of being squeezed, the unexpectedly high altitude change, and the dizzying velocity quickly caused the two to lose consciousness.

*******

“Shit! They really ended up over here?!” Lea said, clutching his seat as Mickey expertly dodged an asteroid. 

“Language!” came a tiny cricket chip that everyone ignored.

“Well, yes, according to Chip and Dale,” Mickey replied to Lea.

Kairi gasped and pointed out the window. “Is that a GummiShip wing?”

All but Mickey, who had to focus on driving, turned to look. It was indeed the wing of a GummiShip. White, just like one of the ones on the ship Riku and Sora had taken.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s theirs,” Mickey pointed out. “Either way, let’s keep a lookout for more parts, or maybe the disabled ship itself.”

“Oh, wait! I see a world over there!” Kairi called excitedly. “Look! It was hidden by the asteroid fields! Let’s check there.”

Lea’s eyes widened. “Uh, Kairi? That does not look like a very welcoming world. It’s got a castle that screams ‘evil villain’ and is half swamp.”

“Well, it doesn’t hurt to take a look,” Mickey reasoned.

*******

Sora woke with a groan. Every part of him felt sore; he went to move, then realized that he couldn’t. He opened his eyes and assessed the situation. He was sitting in the dark on a stone floor with his wrists chained to the stone wall above him with thick iron manacles. Sora shook them slightly, but they held firm. That was okay; Sora had a keyblade that could unlock anything—but when he tried summoning it, golden runes appeared on the manacles and pain shot through him, causing Sora to scream. Where was Riku? Sora squinted through the darkness; there, to the side of him! At least the silhouette was the right shape. But he wasn’t moving. Sora called his name, then with much difficulty and nearly spraining his wrists he scooted enough to give Riku a kick.

“Ow!” The silverette said, waking. “Where… am I…” he gasped. “Sora! Sora, where—”

“I’m right here, Riku!” Sora said, voice strained. His chest hurt something fierce. Oh, right. He had magic. None of it could break the manacles, but he could cure himself at least. Sora focused on gathering the magic—then let out a monstrous scream as pain surged through him again.

“Sora!” Riku yelled. “Sora, what happened—aaaaaaauuuuuugh!” Riku had tried to summon his keyblade too, receiving pain for it as well.

“Yeah, that happened,” Sora said. “I tried summoning my keyblade earlier. Just now I was trying to use a cure spell… seems it reacts to magic.”

“You’re injured?” Riku said sharply.

“You’re not?”

Riku cringed. He had similar injuries to Sora: scratches, scrapes, bruises, and possibly a cracked rib, all from the talons of those dragons.

“Where are we?” asked Sora.

“I dunno. Some sort of dungeon, I guess.”

“You are in the Horned King’s castle!” came a whiny little voice, and a little green goblin holding a torch appeared.

“Who’s the Horned King?” Sora asked.

The goblin laughed. “Surely you jest.”

“We’re… not from around here,” Riku admitted.

The goblin gave him a curious look. “Everywhere knows about the Horned King… oh! Stop distracting me. You will see the Horned King now.”

“And what if we don’t want to?” Sora challenged.

“You don’t have a choice!” The goblin gestured behind him, and out of the shadows emerged no less than six of the largest men the boys had ever seen. They were human, probably, but their visages were more akin to those of trolls or ogres.

“You can go willingly or by force,” the goblin said, pulling out a dagger and waving it dangerously near Sora’s face.

The boys chose the former, at least at first. The men kept jostling the two boys, kicking them in the shins and leering at them. Then, one of them tripped Sora, and he sprawled to the ground; the man kicked Sora painfully in his side, and when he stepped on Sora’s hand Sora screamed. Riku immediately tried running to Sora’s side, but was grabbed around his bicep by one of the men. He struggled, and the man twisted Riku’s arm, eliciting a shout of pain from the silverette. Another one of the men grabbed Riku around the other arm, and they tugged him away. Sora, now yelling Riku’s name, was small enough to be easily grabbed around the waist by one and held under the man’s arm, struggling and yelling. The man then grabbed Sora’s throat with his other hand, which was large enough to wrap nearly all the way around, and squeezed. Sora gasped; he couldn’t breathe! Finally the man released Sora’s throat, and Sora stayed quiet, realizing screaming and struggling would be fruitless—and painful.

The boys were led to a large stone room filled with more gigantic men, all who seemed quite drunk and wielded various weapons. The boys were unceremoniously tossed at the bottom of a small set of stone steps, atop of which stood a stone throne.

Upon that throne sat the most terrifying thing either boy had ever seen. No enemy they’d ever fought came close to the evil feeling this being projected. It wasn’t even darkness; it was just plain evil. The being was a tall figure with vomit-green skin and a skull-like face—literally, with hollowed-out eye and nose holes and everything, basically just a skull with the awful green color skin stuck on it—and two long forked horns poking out of his head which tore through the hood of the crimson-red cloak he wore. The Horned King turned to look at the boys with the red glowing spheres floating in his eye sockets.

The King leaned forwards on his throne and spoke in a raspy, deep, echoing voice, sending shivers through the boys’ spines. “And who do we have here? Magic users, I hear?”

The goblin answered when the boys, still in shock, didn’t. “Yes! The Gwythaints saw them fighting one of the marsh wolves! They summoned weapons shaped like keys and used magic attacks such as fireballs and lightning. They can heal, too. That’s why they are in magic-nullification cuffs.”

“Interesting,” the King rasped. He leaned back on the throne and pressed his fingers together as he rested his elbows on the arms of the throne, looking very much like a stereotypical evil villain. “Keys, you say… can’t say I’ve heard of such weapons… can they help locate the Black Cauldron?”

The goblin looked rather confused. “But Sire, are you not having the pig-keeper followed for that purpose?”

The Horned King growled and grabbed the goblin by the throat, squeezing hard. “You dare question me?”

“N-no, sire, of course not!” the goblin squeaked out. “Just was for… personal clarification.”

The King let out a raspy breath and abruptly let the goblin go. He walked over to Sora and Riku, both sitting on the ground. His presence above the boys caused them to cower. The King reached down towards Sora, who tried to scoot back, but between the cuffs and his injuries couldn’t do so quickly enough. The Horned King grabbed him around the throat with long bony fingers that were much stronger than they appeared and reached completely around it. Sora gasped in pain, throat already slightly sore from before. He clutched at the hand circling his throat, yet couldn't pry it off.

“Sora!” Riku yelled, and the King turned towards him, grinning and eyes aglow. 

“So you can speak after all,” the King said, grinning. “Well, then. Tell me. What is this magic you have? Can it help find the Cauldron?”

“Let him go!” Riku yelled in response.

“Not until you answer the question.”

“No! I don’t even know what this Cauldron is you’re talking about!”

“Nonsense!” the King practically spat. “All know what the Black Cauldron is.”

“We’re not from around here,” Riku said.

The King tilted his head in curiosity. “You mean, you truly come from a land that has not heard of neither myself nor the Black Cauldron? Very interesting…” he gave Sora’s throat a final tight squeeze and then released him before returning to his throne to think.

“Sora!” Riku quickly slid over to his friend, who had his hands at his throat and was gasping for air. The brunette opened his mouth as if to speak, but only managed a slight rasping noise as he began to tear up from the pain. “Shh, don’t try to speak,” Riku said to Sora soothingly as he did his best to hold Sora with his wrists still bound.

“Tell me, boy,” the Horned King implored, “where is this land of yours that does not yet know my power?” When Riku didn’t answer—not even realizing he’d been asked a question with his focus on Sora—the Horned King signaled to the gremlin, who pulled out a knife and slashed Riku across the cheek, deep enough for Riku to feel blood dripping down to his chin.

“Ow! What the hell!” Riku yelled, turning to the thing.

“You will tell me where this land of yours is,” the King demanded. 

Riku blinked, thinking of what to say. The rule of keeping World Order could be broken when your life was at stake, right? But what if he told and then this guy turned into another Ansem-Xehanort, intent on controlling all the worlds? He couldn’t unleash that sort of evil upon the universe! Riku hissed as the gremlin slashed him again, this time dangerously close to his eye.

The Horned King snorted and stepped off his throne again, violently grabbing the knife from the gremlin. He grabbed Sora by the hair and held the knife to his throat. “Tell me, or your little friend here dies.” He pressed the knife slightly into Sora’s throat in emphasis, drawing a bubble of blood.

“Sora!” Riku gasped. “Okay, okay! I’ll tell you!”

Just then, a group of men came running into the room, excited. “Your Majesty!” one called. “We’ve found it! The Black Cauldron! You were right, the pig-keeper and his girlfriend led us right to it!”

The Horned King dropped Sora, who fell to the ground with a whimper. The King grinned as he looked at the man. “Well? Where is it, then?”

“They’re bringing it into the castle now!”

The King turned to the boys. “I will speak to you again later.” He signaled to some men, who grabbed Sora and Riku. “Now, I have an army of the undead to raise!” the Horned King cheered in a booming, echoing voice that chilled the boys to the bone.

Sora and Riku were once again violently dragged off to the dungeon and chained to the wall.

*******

“Well… we found their ship,” Lea pointed out the obvious, as the group stood in the fairly terrifying marsh in front of a completely destroyed GummiShip. The wing they’d passed by had definitely come from it, and the windshield was entirely smashed.

“This is why you don’t let Sora drive!” Donald complained loudly.

Goofy then noticed footprints leaving it, so the group decided to follow those. Not long after they came across the body of a gigantic wolf that bore markings of magic and keyblade strikes; it was both relieving to know that the boys survived the crash well enough to fight, yet nerve-wracking to realize they had had to fight such a gigantic wolf—of which there might be more around. The footprints became more elongated after, indicating running—and there were only one set, belonging to Riku. The group became more worried, realizing Sora must have been injured, then became relieved again as two sets of prints appeared after what looked like a fall into some mud.

Then, the group reached a more open area that terrified them. The prints had become frantic, and there were skid marks, as though they’d been trying to dodge something—no doubt whatever made those huge talon marks into the dirt. Then they stopped. Whatever the things were had gotten them.

“No,” Kairi gasped, covering her mouth and starting to tear up.

“Hey, relax,” Lea said, rubbing her back to try to calm the girl. “They’ll be fine. They’re tougher than whatever they were fighting; probably just took a ride or something,” he tried to joke to lighten the mood.

“Gurgi knows what happened.” The group turned to the source of the warble to find a strange dog-monkey thing looking at them. 

“You know where Sora is?!” Donald squawked.

“And Riku,” Goofy reminded the duck.

“Yes. The Gwythaints captured them, brought them to the Horned King’s castle. Gurgi could take you there, if you help Gurgi rescue his other friends who were taken there too.”

*******

“Sora, hey!” Riku hissed. “Sora, you have to stay awake!”

Sora mumbled something indistinct as his head lolled to the side. Riku struggled against the cuffs that were now chained to the wall again, but all that did was cause the chains to rattle. The Horned King’s lackeys had roughed them up a bit more on their way back, and Sora had gotten the worst of it again, including a kick to the head with a spiked boot that left a bloody gash and possibly a concussion; he'd been struggling to stay awake since.

“Hello friends! Gurgi can help!”

Riku turned to see a torch rapidly moving towards them, which nearly went out as Gurgi tripped and dropped it. Gurgi then rushed over to Riku, undoing the chain, which didn’t need a key. Unfortunately though, the manacles themselves did need a key, which Gurgi hadn’t been able to find. Gurgi then informed them of the way out, telling them he wouldn’t be joining them as he needed to save his other friends.

“We can help you!” Sora offered in a strained voice, followed by a cough.

“Sora, you can barely even walk!” Riku pointed out. “Let’s just go. Thank you, Gurgi, we appreciate it very much. Next we see you, we’ll give you more food, okay?”

“Ooh, Gurgi likes that! Now, goodbye, friends!” Gurgi scampered off.

Sora looked like he would try to follow, but then he fainted. Riku frantically tried to wake Sora, but to no avail, so he picked Sora up the best he could with his wrists still shackled together and started running, being careful to sneak past any rooms and hide from any of the King’s minions passing by. And, apparently, undead soldiers too—the Horned King truly had found the Black Cauldron he’d been seeking. Well, that was this world’s problem; Riku and Sora just needed to get out of there!

Thankfully the undead soldiers were incredibly easy to dodge, the mindless army obviously not concerned with intruders, and soon Riku, carrying the unconscious Sora, exited the castle onto the bridge that crossed the moat—to the extremely welcome sight of their friends fighting the undead soldiers.

“Kairi! Mickey! Everyone!” Riku called, stumbling slightly as he approached them. 

“Riku!” Kairi called, striking down another soldier and rushing over. “What happened?! Is Sora okay?!” she yelled in a panic upon seeing Sora, whose throat was nearly black with bruising and hair was matted with blood. 

“Yeah, he’ll be fine,” Riku said, doing his best to keep calm, even though he wasn’t actually sure.

Suddenly, an explosion sounded from somewhere within the castle, and the soldiers all collapsed. The group looked around, unsure what had happened.

“Well, we found Riku and Sora,” Lea said. “Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth and just get out of here!”

“But what about Gurgi?” Kairi asked.

“Nevermind about him!” Riku said. “He’ll be fine. He rescued us, and then went to find his other friends. Now, let’s go!” He ran across the bridge, still holding Sora, and the others followed until they were a sufficient distance away from the castle to feel safe.

Shortly after, the castle completely collapsed.

Kairi gasped and put her hands over her mouth. “Gurgi!”

Lea put his hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “I’m sure he and his friends got out safely. But, um, maybe we should deal with our friends first?”

“Oh! Right!” Kairi darted over to Riku, who had laid Sora on the ground; both were still in the cuffs. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy were already there.

“Why haven’t you healed yet?” Donald squawked. “Here, I’ll do it.” He used a wide-range cure spell on the two.

Riku held a hand out. “No, wait—aaaaaaauuuugh!” Riku doubled over as all his nerves seared and Sora’s body twitched violently. Donald jumped back in shock as Riku gasped out an explanation. “These cuffs… they turn magic... into pain… we couldn’t even… summon our keyblades.”

“Do you think a keyblade can unlock it, then?” Lea wondered.

Riku pondered that. “Hey, Mickey? Could you try it on me?” Mickey nodded, and tried unlocking Riku’s cuffs with his keyblade; Riku’s wince of pain confirmed that, for the first time in recorded history, a lock had been discovered that the keyblade could not unlock.

“Anyone have a knife?” Lea asked. “We can try prying one of the chain links open to disconnect the cuffs, which will at least give them some mobility.”

Of all the people there, Kairi was unexpectedly the one who had a knife quickly at hand. However, as soon as it scraped against Riku’s cuffs, a wave of pain shot through him as the runes glowed. Clearly anything that attempted to damage the cuffs would set them off.

“We’ll have to consult Yen Sid on the matter,” Mickey concluded. 

“You both look so beat up,” Kairi said sadly; it pained her that she couldn’t heal them. “What happened?”

Riku sighed. “They initially captured us because they saw we were fighting a wolf using magic, and thought we maybe could lead them to some Black Cauldron thing. But then they realized we were from a different world—everyone in this world knows who the Horned King is, yet we didn’t. That guy apparently wants to rule everything, so was kinda pissed that there are worlds he didn’t know anything about. We wouldn’t tell him—that guy is seriously a thousand times worse than Xehanort, I swear; him knowing about the other worlds would be disastrous—so he started to try torturing it out of us.” Riku turned away, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to fall. “Sora got the worst of it, since he decided to use our friendship as leverage. Luckily he was interrupted though, by his lackeys finding that Black Cauldron thing he was looking for. Apparently that’s the thing that summoned the undead soldiers. So they chained us back up in the dungeons, though not before his lackeys roughed us up a bit more, then Gurgi found us.”

“Gawrsh, that sounds horrible,” Goofy said, looking sadly at Sora. “He’ll be okay, right?”

“Physically his injuries aren’t too bad; nothing a cure spell can’t fix once we’re out of the cuffs,” Riku assured the dog, though he wasn't actually sure of that. Mentally was a different story though; the Horned King would definitely be visiting them both in nightmares.

Mickey smiled sadly. “Well, I’m glad you’re both safe now. Let’s head back, okay?”

*******

“Friends!” came a garbled voice, and suddenly Gurgi appeared, flanked by a young girl and boy, and followed by a middle-aged bard.

“Gurgi!” Kairi replied, pulling the creature into her arms. “Thank you for all your help.”

“Oh my!” the girl proclaimed, running up to Sora, who was being carried in Lea’s arms as he wasn’t cuffed. “What happened to him?”

“The Horned King,” Riku replied. “Gurgi rescued us just before he ran to save you. Sora will be fine though; we’ll use healing magic as soon as we get the cuffs off—they block magic.”

The girl nodded. “Yes, I was in them briefly. But then they realized that my magic bauble wasn’t affected, because it isn’t in my body. So they switched to rope, which was much easier to escape. Oh, I’m Princess Eilonwy, by the way,” she introduced herself to the group.

“Taran,” said the boy.

“Fflewddur Fflam,” the bard introduced.

“Yes!” Gurgi said. “These are Gurgi’s other friends!”

Riku, Lea, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy—whom everyone had forgotten was with them, as usual—all introduced themselves too. Gurgi and his other friends told them how the Horned King had been defeated and cauldron rendered inert, though neither group had much time to talk beyond that. Before they parted ways, Kairi gifted Gurgi with some nutrition bars in thanks for all his help.

*******

“See? This is why you don’t let Sora drive!” Donald squawked at Riku, as the group arrived at the destroyed ship.

Riku blushed and looked down in shame. “Actually, I was the one driving…” he said sheepishly.

“Let me guess, Sora bet that you couldn’t make some stupid manouvre and you took it,” Kairi ventured, grinning wryly.

Riku winced; Kairi had hit the nail on the head.

“See? Told you,” Lea said to Donald and Mickey, the latter who appeared completely shocked. “Not nearly as responsible as you seem to think.”

“At least not when he’s with Sora,” Kairi giggled.

Jiminy Cricket appeared from Donald’s hat and hopped over to Riku, attempting to lecture him on responsibility and resisting peer pressure and other such things. Riku simply ignored him.

There was absolutely no way they could repair the ship or lug it back with them, so they decided to salvage any of the most costly parts they could. They also removed any items stored in it to transfer to the other ship, which Goofy had gone to get. Then, Donald and Mickey used a joint-attack that combined a meteor with a mega flare to blow it up—after all, one can’t leave dead space ships lying around in random worlds who don't know of such.

Sora, whom they’d laid on the blanket, began to stir at the noise. “Riku?” he muttered tiredly, then as he woke more started to panic. “Riku?!” It came out in a gasp, and Sora clutched at his throat as he coughed viciously.

“I’m here, Sora, don’t worry,” Riku told the brunette, who had started to attempt sitting up, as he dashed over. “It’s okay, we’re safe now, we got out of there.” Riku gently pressed on Sora’s shoulder so he’d lie down again, then joined their hands together.

“But… cuffs…” Sora used the bare minimum of words, as it hurt whenever he spoke.

“Yeah, we’re still trying to figure out how to get those off. Once we do, we can properly heal.”

“Are—”

“Shh. Yes, but not as hurt as you are. You need to rest now. Keep still, and don’t use your voice, okay?”

Sora nodded.

AWOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Everyone but Sora and Riku froze at the howl. Sora began to squirm in panic as Riku tried to hold him down while biting down his own panic, both remembering their fight against one of this world’s giant wolves.

Thankfully Mickey’s GummiShip appeared at that point, driven by Goofy. As soon as he landed everyone scrambled in, tossing the extra supplies and parts haphazardly in—thankfully they’d brought a larger ship than usual—before jumping in themselves, Lea carrying Sora.

“DRIVE,” Lea yelled, with similar shouts echoed from everyone else, and Goofy slammed his hand on the acceleration button, causing everyone, not yet seated, to be knocked around as the ship sped away. Looking out of the rear window, they could see the outline of a giant wolf near where they had just been.

Once they were through the portal into the Lanes Between and a long distance away from the world, Kairi said what was on everyone’s mind: “Let’s never go back there again.”

“Agreed,” Riku said, in the process of cleaning blood and dirt off of Sora to better assess the brunette’s wounds, as well as clean them in general—well, at least the best he would with limited hand movements. He was relieved to discover that the head one was not nearly as bad as expected, even though it had bled a scary amount. Kairi noticed and ran to the bathroom to grab some more wet towels to help with the task.

“There weren’t even heartless there!” Lea proclaimed. “Yet somehow it was still more terrifying than the freaking Realm of Darkness!”

“I think I’m going to need therapy after that,” Riku groaned, only half-joking.

“Oh, like you didn’t need it already?” Lea quipped back, receiving a chuckle from Riku. 

Truthfully, they probably all could use therapy after all the stuff they’d been through, not even including this hellish adventure. Jiminy Cricket tried pointing this out, but no one listened once again.

*******

Sora had fallen asleep again by the time they reached the Mysterious Tower. Goofy offered to carry him this time, and the group quickly set him up on a bed in a spare room. Riku desperately wanted to stay, but Mickey insisted he join them in meeting with Yen Sid so the wizard could examine the cuffs. Kairi and Goofy—the two least adept at magic—stayed with Sora instead, while the others went to the elderly wizard’s office, where he seemed to always be when people visited. He could probably tell when someone entered the Tower.

As assumed, Yen Sid was indeed in his office, ready to receive the group. His eyes uncharacteristically widened in shock as he noticed Riku, who was covered in blood and bruises, the most notable injuries being the long slashes across his cheek and under the eye.

“They're not as bad as they look," Riku assured upon noting Yen Sid’s reaction. "Sora’s injuries are much worse though. Lea and Kairi are with him in one of the bedrooms. We can’t heal because of these.” He raised his arms up to show the heavy cuffs binding his wrists together. “They cause intense pain whenever we try to use any type of magic, or if people use magic on us, or if anything tries to damage them, even keyblades.”

Yen Sid frowned, pondering. “Whereas I have not seen that specific design, in most cases such magic is based on some sort of rune or sigil.”

“Oh! Yeah, glowing runes appear whenever they activate!” Riku said.

Yen Sid nodded. “Once the inscription is destroyed, the magic should be rendered inert. If you could sear or scratch some of it off, then you should be able to unlock them with the keyblade.”

Riku nodded. "Right… but I can't do that myself, so…"

“Lea, why don’t you do it?” Yen Sid suggested. “You have the most powerful and precise control of fire magic of anyone here, so should be able to create fire hot enough to melt the iron within a small enough controlled area, correct?”

Lea blinked. “Y-yeah,” he said, completely surprised at the praise from the elderly wizard. He turned to Riku. “It’ll probably burn you, though; iron heats up extremely quickly, and we’ll be trying to melt it…”

Riku nodded. “I understand.” He held out his arms. “Do it.”

Lea nodded and grabbed Riku’s wrist. As he approached the manacles with the fire magic, the runes lit up and Riku cringed at the pain they sent through him. His knees buckled slightly. Lea paused; Mickey suggested Riku sit down for it, which he did. After what felt like forever to Riku but in actuality was barely a minute, the pain stopped, and Riku became conscious that his wrists hurt now. Mickey used his keyblade, and the manacles opened, freeing Riku’s severely-burned wrists, which were immediately healed with a cure spell.

The rest of Riku’s wounds, however, were not healing as easily, since healing magic and potions become less effective the longer the injuries are left unhealed. A blanket cure spell lessened some of the bruising, but the deeper bruises and cuts Riku would have to heal individually, some twice before they vanished. Riku got started on doing so, with Donald’s help, while Mickey and Lea began explaining the events of the unexpected adventure to an increasingly amazed Yen Sid; even he seemed disturbed by their mere descriptions of everything.

*******

Sora began to wake. “Mmmm, where…” He coughed, and his eyes opened wide as he struggled to jump up again, with a gasp at the pain of attempting such.

“Sora, you have to lie down!” Kairi said from her seat on the edge of the bed next to Sora, as she lightly pressed on Sora’s shoulder to gently lead him back down in the way she’d seen Riku do earlier.

“Where’s… Riku…?” Sora strained.

“Shhh, don’t talk. You’re at Yen Sid’s. Riku is fine; he’s meeting with him along with Donald, Lea, and Mickey.”

“We’re hoping he can help figure out how to get those cuffs off,” Goofy said.

As if on cue, in walked everyone else: Mickey, Donald, Lea, Yen Sid, and Riku. Upon seeing the last one, Sora reached out and tried to say his name again.

“Hey, Sora, it’s okay, I’m here,” Riku said, dashing over to kneel next to Sora as Kairi was sitting on the edge of the bed. Riku grabbed Sora’s hand and gently ran the other through the brunette’s hair, and Sora sighed in comfort.

“You found a way to remove the cuffs!” Kairi said, noticing how Riku’s hands had moved separately.

Riku nodded, then shifted slightly. “It’s painful though. We have to activate them so the runes appear, and then burn enough of them off to neutralize the magic. It’ll heat up the cuffs too, causing burns, but it’s the only method we could quickly figure out.”

Sora cringed and nodded, holding out the cuffs and closing his eyes.

“Lea’s going to do it, as he’s the best with fire magic,” Riku explained. “I’m going to hold your arm and press on your shoulder in case your body tries to involuntarily move or convulse from the pain. Kairi will do the same with your legs, okay?”

Sora nodded in response, and Riku gently brushed his hand over Sora’s forehead before he and Kairi moved into position. He signalled to Lea to begin; Lea gently held Sora’s hands with one hand, carefully avoiding what appeared to be a broken finger, and then his other hand hovered over the brunette’s wrist. As the fire magic touched the cuffs, Sora let out a gasp of pain and arched back, Riku and Kairi gripping him hard to keep him still. He breathed hard as the cuffs heated up, whimpering in pain as well.

“Almost done,” Lea told Sora quietly. True to his word, the pain curse halted, leaving only the pain from his regular wounds and burning from the heated cuffs. Mickey used his keyblade to unlock them, revealing a blistering burn in the spot that had received the most heat with the rest of the wrists red.

Sora shook slightly, eyes watering as he reached over to Riku, who slipped onto the bed and pulled Sora close. “Shh. It’s okay, you’ll be okay. We need to heal your wounds now, okay?” Like with Riku’s wounds, there were too many and they had sat too long for a simple blanket curaga to heal the wounds fully all at once, with the exception of the burn which a simple cure spell immediately healed. Riku then concentrated on Sora’s throat, removing the small knife wound and some of the bruising. “Can you speak now?” Riku asked.

Sora opened his mouth and began to say something, then shook his head and croaked, “Still hurts. But not as much.”

Donald rushed over. “There’s probably internal damage,” he said, and used his own magic, focusing intently on the area. Meanwhile, Riku worked on healing the head injury. 

Sora gasped. “Thanks, Donald,” he said, voice still scratchy. “And Riku. My head and neck feel mostly better.”

Kairi brought a basket of potions over and handed one to Riku, who helped Sora drink it. It finished healing Sora’s throat and head, as well as lightened some of the other injuries, though not by much. Potions were only good for very minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises; they’d have to use healing magic for the rest.

“We’ll need to take his shirt and pants off to assess his injuries better,” Donald said. “Mickey stays, everyone else out.” Mickey was the second-best healer to Donald.

“They can stay too. Especially Riku.” Sora insisted, grabbing the silverette’s hand tighter.

Yen Sid left to wait outside the room, but Lea, Kairi, and Goofy stayed, opting to sit on the bed on the opposite side of the room. Sora tried to remove his clothes himself, but still was in significant pain so the others helped him. Eventually he was left only in his boxers. The three of them cringed; even with the potion significant bruising had been left.

“Where does it hurt most?” Donald asked.

“Everywhere,” Sora replied with a groan.

The duck sighed in annoyance. “Yes, but what about the most? We want to fix the worst injuries first!”

“Your ribs, right?” Riku asked. He remembered that Sora had been kicked there quite a bit.

Sora nodded. “I think my left one is broken—aah!” Sora yelled as Donald poked it.

“Yup, broken,” Donald said. “We need to set the bone before trying to heal it…”

Riku held Sora’s hand tightly as the duck did just that, then Donald and Mickey combined their healing magic to heal the rib. From there, they worked through the other wounds, flipping Sora onto his stomach partway through.

Sora stayed still for a moment as the last of the bruises had been healed; after being in pain for such a long time, the sudden absence of it felt briefly odd. Then Sora sat up, grinned, grabbed Riku’s cheeks, and kissed Riku hard on the lips. “I love you so much!” Sora said breathlessly, then laughed gently.

Riku, blushing, allowed Sora to kiss him once more, which he returned, before pressing their foreheads together and reminding him that they had an audience, causing Sora to squeak and jump back slightly, as well as eliciting a blush from the brunette too.

“Ooooh,” Kairi said in realization, then laughed and turned to Lea to say, “So that’s why you thought they’d eloped.”

“What’s ‘eloped’ mean?” Sora asked, still in only his boxers with his arms now draped around Riku’s shoulders as he sat leaning into the silverette. Riku whispered the definition into Sora’s ear, causing his face to redden even more. “Th-that’s… I don’t think we’re there yet!” Sora stammered to Lea.

Lea raised an eyebrow. “Yet?”

Sora hid his head in Riku’s shoulder as he muttered “Shut up.”

“You’re not upset?” Riku asked Kairi, thinking about how she’d had a crush on Sora.

Kairi shrugged, less upset than expected; perhaps a part of her had known the crush wouldn’t pan out, as well as how much her two friends were attracted to each other. “Honestly, I’m not particularly surprised in retrospect.”

Sora looked confused at that exchange. “Why would you be upset, Kairi?”

Everyone, including Kairi, stared at Sora in a mixture of disbelief and fondness at Sora’s sheer obliviousness.

Jiminy Cricket then appeared on Kairi’s shoulder. “Well, then, in other business, should I record that world in my journal, or pretend it doesn’t exist? These records do go into the datascape, after all…”

“Pretend it doesn’t exist,” everyone instantly concurred, except Kairi, who instead asked, “Where the hell were you hiding?!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! "The Black Cauldron" is on Disney+ now, if you haven't seen it and are interested. It has excellent and beautiful animation; just be prepared for a very disjointed plot (they tried to take two novels and shove them into less than two hours, then had to cut a bunch to keep it at least somewhat kid-friendly, and even then it still was the first Disney animated film to receive a PG rating, which was a bigger deal then than it is today). It's very different than Disney's usual films, as it was their first attempt to appeal to an older audience—it's very dark, has no musical numbers, and gives kids nightmares. If it hadn't been a flop, Disney could have gone in a very different direction than we know! Pretty sure they still have the rights to the novels it's loosely based on, so maybe they can turn it into a series or something now that they're not afraid of making things too scary (not another movie. Those are not movie books).


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